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San Diego once again brought the sunshine, but the real energy came from the #DataFam at Tableau Conference 2025. Over four days packed with sessions, meetups, and unforgettable moments, I had the honor of presenting, connecting, learning, and even hacking my way through some of the best the Tableau community has to offer.
🎤 My Sessions: Sharing the Stage with the Best
This year, I had the privilege of presenting five sessions (one twice), each focused on practical tips, community insights, and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with Tableau. The standout?
40 Tips in 40 Minutes – a fast-paced, crowd-favorite session together with Nhung Le – now available to watch online on Salesforce +
👉 Watch “40 Tips in 40 Minutes”
Our starter and solutions workbooks can be found on Tableau Public:
I also stepped into the ring for the legendary DataFam Tip Battle — a rapid-fire showdown of tips, tricks, and friendly competition. Last year I came second, after my nemesis Kimly Scott!
You’ll find my solution workbook with the tips I manage to share in my 2 (out of potential 3 rounds), after I got knocked out of the semi-finals by my Tip-hero, the Hall of Fame legend, Jeff Shaffer!
🌍 Growing a Global Data Community in Just 4 Months – The Tableau Sandbox Buddy program
One of the most meaningful sessions I co-led at TC25 was “Tableau Buddy Sandbox: Your Data Enablement Blueprint” – a deep dive into the journey behind the Tableau Buddy Sandbox program.
Together with fellow co-leader Prasann Prem and some of our mentors on stage (Steve Adams, Louis Yu and Adrian Zinovei), we shared how we built and ran a 4-month accelerator program that brought together 18 mentees from around the world, powered by personalized coaching, collaboration, and a shared love of data. We talked about:
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What it takes to build a mentorship program from scratch
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Lessons learned balancing community building with full-time jobs
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How to scale impact with limited resources
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And most importantly, the human stories behind the dashboards
This session was close to my heart, and I’m incredibly proud of the work our mentees and mentors put in to make it a success.
If you want to learn more about this – an how we can help your organization achieve this, please reach out!
🗺️Let’s Talk Data + Maps
One of the more relaxed (but no less insightful) moments at TC25 was our Data + Maps Community Learning session, where I joined forces with Dennis Kao and Ross Paulson to geek out over all things spatial.
Held in the Community Learning Zone, this session was an open invitation to map-lovers, GIS pros, and spatially curious Tableau users. We chatted with attendees about:
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How we use maps and spatial analysis in real-world projects
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Favorite mapping tips and tricks in Tableau
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Common challenges in spatial workflows
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Why maps continue to be such powerful tools for storytelling
It was informal, interactive, and a great reminder of how rich and diverse the #DataPlusMaps community truly is. So many great questions and feedback from the participants attending!🌍
Please sign up for the upcoming Data + Maps TUG May 21st (all virtual)!
🙏 Final Thoughts
Every year, Tableau Conference reminds me why I love this community. It’s about more than dashboards and features — it’s about people, ideas, and lifting each other up through shared learning. Thank you to everyone who attended my sessions, said hi in the hallway, or shared a tip or taco.
Next post will be about the pre-games, Hackathon, Data + Women meetup, Data + Tacos and more!
Until next post/year, DataFam. 💙
— Tore
